5

 

Wendy floated up through layers of soft grayness, not running from the darkness, but following the path of least resistance. She felt warmth touch her cheek, tasted the sweet scent of flowers, and heard the whisper of leaves playing in the breeze.

Her eyelids fluttered as she willed herself to see. Where was she? Could this be death? Was she in heaven?

Now she realized she was in a bed, a wonderful bed with crisp cotton sheets, and a quilt so light that she could barely feel its weight.

It rustled slightly as a breeze touched her face. Wendy smiled and swung her feet over the side of the bed. Her chest felt sore and she had a headache.

"And where are you going?"

The apparition was so sudden, so completely unexpected, that she shook her head in disbelief. Lando! What was he doing here? Had he been killed as well? No, if this was heaven, then he'd be somewhere else.

The smuggler smiled gently. "Sleeping Beauty awakes. Here, try some of this."

Wendy accepted the mug and took a tentative sip. It was full of hot creamy soup. It tasted good. She found she was hungry and swallowed the soup in greedy little gulps.

As Wendy ate, Lando sat on the edge of the bed and watched. Now Wendy remembered. The decision to enter the warehouse without him, the one-eyed woman, and the horrible fight. A fight that Lando had won.

She finished the soup and handed the empty mug to Lando. Suddenly tired, she fell back against the pillow. She smiled. "Hello, Pik."

Lando smiled back. "Hello, Wendy."

"I've got a feeling that I owe you a great deal." There was a bandage on the back of her head. She didn't remember her head hitting the floor but knew that it must have. She touched her chest. "Thanks for the armor."

Lando shrugged. "We were lucky."

Wendy shook her head. "No, you were lucky. I was stupid. Stupid to ignore your advice, stupid to go in there alone, and stupid to be taken by surprise. How many people did my stupidity kill?"

Lando shook his head slightly. "None. They died because they tried to kill us. The decision was theirs, not ours."

Wendy frowned. "You make it sound so reasonable. But they might be alive if I'd followed your orders. That's the trouble with evil. It sounds good."

Lando reached out to take her hand. His fingers were strong yet gentle. "How about a truce? You believe your way, and I'll believe mine. What's done is done, and there's no going back."

Wendy thought about that for a moment and nodded her head. Lando was right, this time, anyway.

"Well, if that's settled, I'd like to brush my teeth and see to some other needs as well."

Lando nodded understandingly. "The bathroom is nearby. I'll give you a hand."

Wendy took a peek under the sheet and felt blood rush to her cheeks. "Thanks, but I'd like to put some clothes on first."

Lando smiled. "Why? I've seen all there is to see. You're very pretty."

Wendy blushed and changed the subject. "Which brings us to an interesting question. Why a hotel rather than a hospital? And who's paying for all this?"

Lando disappeared for a moment and reappeared holding a long white terry cloth robe. It had the hotel's logo emblazoned on the breast pocket. He turned his back while Wendy put it on.

"We're staying in a hotel because it would be very difficult for me to protect you in the local hospital. As for the bill, well, consider yourself my guest."

Moving cautiously, Wendy once again swung her legs over the side of the bed. "You really think it's necessary? Protecting me, that is? You can turn around now."

Lando took Wendy's arm as her feet found the floor and she winced slightly. "Yeah, I think it's necessary. If stopping you was worth one team, then it's worth another. It will take some time for the news to make its way to Terra, and some more time for Mega-Metals to react, but they will."

Wendy supposed that he was right. She shuffled through a nicely furnished sitting area and into the bathroom.

"What about the local police?"

"We're free to leave whenever we want. The warehouse security cameras captured the whole thing. It was a clear-cut case of self-defense."

"No," Wendy said. "That's good news… but it's not what I meant. Wouldn't the police protect me?"

"Not really," Lando replied evenly. "They can't spare someone to guard you just on the chance that you'll be attacked."

Wendy stopped at the door. "Did you tell them about Mega-Metals and the fertilizer?"

"No. I told them the whole thing seemed like robbery pure and simple. And the stuff that woman said about killing Troon bore me out."

Lando laughed. "The hard part was convincing the police that your fertilizer was worth stealing. But the price listed on your invoice did a lot to convince them."

Wendy nodded. She'd forgotten about Troon. Another death, and even more proof that Lando was right. The company would stop at nothing.

Wendy closed the bathroom door and leaned on the sink. Troon was dead but she was alive. Not just alive, but happy to be alive. Was that right or wrong? The face in the mirror provided no clue.

Lando was an old hand at driving the hover truck by now. The fertilizer was stored in The Tink's hold, so free of any load, the truck made pretty good time.

They passed mile after mile of orderly fields. There were a variety of crops, but some low, leafy bushes seemed to be especially popular, and took up thousands of acres.

Wendy saw neat-looking farmhouses, hard-working robo-tillers, and the occasional agrobot. The newer ones stood about thirty feet tall, could perform a wide range of tasks,

and crossed the fields with twenty-foot strides. They had a delicate mincing gait that ate a lot of ground without damaging the crops.

Wendy glanced at Lando. His attention was on the road. What was the smuggler up to, anyway? The ship was ready to lift, and outside of some residual soreness, so was she. And, given the fact that Mega-Metals would be extremely unhappy with them, there was every reason to leave.

She studied him more closely and wondered what he was thinking. The smuggler was a lot more complicated than he seemed. Mercenary yet altruistic. Violent yet gentle. And this trip to the country… What was it about?

As if in answer to her question, Lando pulled over to the side of the road and killed the turbine. The truck settled to the ground with an audible groan.

Wendy looked around. Lando had chosen a spot where other vehicles could pass. There were fields on one side and a dip on the other. It led upwards to a small hill and a copse of gently swaying trees.

Lando smiled. "The view from the top of that hill should be rather nice. Just right for a picnic."

"A picnic?"

"That's right," Lando said as he opened his door. "Some therapy for the invalid."

Wendy laughed. "I'll show you an invalid. Let's see who reaches the top of that hill first!"

Lando slid to the ground, grabbed the hotel's picnic hamper from the back of the truck, and scrambled down the side of the road.

Wendy had raced ahead and was already starting up the hill.

Lando put on a burst of speed, slipped, and fell. The fall cost him the race, but he did manage to hold on to the picnic basket.

Wendy scampered the rest of the way up the hill and stood victorious on the top. Her chest hurt a little. She waited for Lando to plod his way up the slope.

"Slowpoke."

"Cheat."

Both of them laughed. They looked around. The view was marvelous. Starting at the base of the hill, row after row of bluish green crops marched off to the horizon and disappeared. Some fluffy white clouds dotted the sky, gently pushed by a cooling breeze, all so much alike that they seemed like products of a vast machine.

Wendy breathed the beauty in and let it fill her soul. "Thank you."

Lando smiled. "For what?"

"For everything. For crashing through that door on the chance that I was in trouble, for nursing me back to health, and for bringing me here. Now I'll have good memories to balance out the bad."

Lando looked into her eyes and found himself drawn to the softness there. The hamper fell from his grasp to the ground. Their lips touched. The kiss was tentative at first, but the awkwardness soon passed.

Hands touched, bodies met, and hearts beat a little faster. It was Wendy who pulled Lando down towards the grass.

Lying there beside Wendy, his hand cupping a well-shaped breast, Lando brushed her lips with his. "Are you sure?"

Wendy smiled, one of her hands slipping down the front of the smuggler's body. "Yes, I'm sure."

Lando grinned. "It's not against your religion?"

Wendy laughed. "Of course not. Just shut up and take advantage of me. Watch my chest though… it's still a little sore."

Lando opened Wendy's shirt one closure at a time. "Guess what? Your chest looks fine."

Wendy raised an eyebrow. The Tinker's Damn was in hyper-space and had been for hours. They were seated in the ship's miniscule lounge. "Wait a minute. I thought you said it was my problem."

Lando grinned over his coffee cup. "I changed my mind."

Wendy did her best to look stern. "Oh? And why was that?"

"Because if I get the concentrate past the company's ships,

and down to Angel's surface, I'll be able to spend more time with you."

Wendy laughed. "Nicely put! Realizing of course that your idea of spending time with me involves more than friendly conversation. So what's the plan? Remembering that violence is out."

"Well," Lando answered lightly, "while you were lying around the hotel room sleeping, I did some research. It seems that Mega-Metals runs a highly automated shipping operation. Rather than pay the higher costs associated with crewed ships the company runs a fleet of automated cargo carriers."

Wendy nodded her agreement. "That's true. They're cheaper to operate and carry larger payloads to boot. The company still charges us an arm and a leg, though. But so what? How does that help us?

Lando took a sip of coffee. "Answer the following question first. You indicated that your supplies arrive via Mega-Metals hulls. Does the company search your cargo prior to landing?"

Wendy shook her head. "No, that's done at the other end. The company's security police search our supply modules before they're loaded aboard. The company claims that they're looking for contraband, but the truth is that they're checking to see what we're up to. By analyzing what we import, they can tell which crops are doing well, which aren't, and where to put more pressure on us."

"So," Lando concluded, "it's fair to say that whatever cargo comes off the carrier is taken at face value?"

Wendy's face lit up with sudden understanding. "I get it! Somewhere between Earth orbit and Angel we load the concentrate aboard their own ship! The vessel arrives, and they bring the fertilizer dirtside along with everything else. Not only that, they deliver it right to our front door! It's brilliant!"

"Maybe," Lando said thoughtfully, "and maybe not. The timing would be absolutely critical. There's no way to locate, much less board, another ship in hyperspace. That means the cargo would have to be loaded just prior to, or just after the jump. Not only that, there's the matter of available space. Would there be enough room for the concentrate?"

"Yes, sometimes," Wendy answered eagerly. "The company man, a rather unpleasant individual named Lorenzo Pal, gripes about partially loaded supply ships all the time. They lower his profit margin. But there's no way to be sure that we'd get one.

"As for the other problem, well, that's a good deal more difficult. Tugs escort the carriers out from Terra and stand by until they enter hyperspace."

Lando nodded. "So it would be impossible to load the concentrate prior to the hyperspace jump. What about afterwards? Are tugs waiting at the other end?"

Wendy bit her lower lip. It was a nice lower lip, and something about the way it moved caused Lando to think about other activities. He forced himself back on track.

"No, I don't think so. We don't get much pirate activity around Angel, and the tugs are kept pretty busy, so Pal allows the carriers to drift for a while."

"How long would that be?"

Wendy shrugged. "It's hard to say exactly. Hours at least, days at most."

Lando gave it some thought. For the scam to work, they'd have to match speeds with the carrier, land on it, crack the company's security code, fine a place to stash the additional cargo module, shift the concentrate from The Tink's hold to the larger vessel, secure it, and escape. All without leaving any sign of their visit. Not an easy task. Still, it would be one helluva scam, and might even impress his father.

Lando thought about the problem for a moment longer, and then raised his cup. "To a first-class scam. Let's hope it works."